Global commerce requires that articles being shipped are securely and properly packaged to prevent damage during the shipping process, particularly during loading and unloading of the articles. In addition, it is know that shipping costs, whether by land, air or sea, are directly proportional to the size of the parts. In the particular case of vehicle wheels a large volume of aluminum wheels used in North American automobile production are currently produced in Asia requiring shipping over great distances through a variety of means.
Current packaging for the shipment of vehicle wheels is generally inefficient. Specifically, for wheels having a diameter of 15″-16″ each shipping pallet contains 32 wheels while for wheels having a diameter of 17″-20″ each shipping pallet contains only 16 wheels. This arrangement results in shipping inefficiencies of between about 30-45% per 40′ ocean shipping container. A further restriction is imposed in that for wheels over 20″ it is highly inefficient to have these articles produced in low-cost provider countries given the impracticality of moving such large wheels over long distances. All of these inefficiencies add considerable expense to the movement and thus to the cost of such articles.
Accordingly, a need exists today for an improved arrangement for shipping vehicle wheels over long distances.